GSA freezes hiring, suspends most SES bonuses

Jason Miller, executive editor, Federal News Radio

The General Services Administration's top-to-bottom review found major
inconsistencies in how it gives bonuses to Senior Executive Service members.

And in the aftermath of the Western Regions Conference scandal, which
showed the agency paid thousands of dollars in bonuses to employees under
investigation, acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini took a major step to reign in
the agency's performance award structure.

Tangherlini announced Tuesday he is cutting the number of SES performance awards
by 85 percent in fiscal 2012 and 2013, and suspending all performance awards given
out in the administrator's office for the rest of 2012.

Dan Tangherlini, acting administrator, GSA

He also has instituted a temporary hiring freeze until the organizational review
is completed this fall.

"This review has uncovered clear deficiencies in the area of performance awards,"
he wrote in a blog
post. "By our count, we currently have more than 15 different bonus
structures; there are questions about the agency's high award rate, and questions
about whether performance goals are set at a high enough level throughout the
agency. I believe performance awards should be issued for exemplary service that
goes above and beyond the basic, expected level of performance."

Tangherlini said GSA also will "eliminate the Awards Stores program, where
employees had access to prizes like iPods and digital cameras. We have a
responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. We are also going to
undertake a comprehensive review of all our performance management and awards
system, including individual and organizational performance awards. And we will
work closely with the unions to fulfill our obligations."

Bonus freeze not new

All these were issues that came up in the aftermath of the conference scandal that
became public in April, which caused the downfall of at least four senior
officials, including then-Administrator Martha Johnson.

GSA's inspector general found the employees under investigation received
more than $1 million in bonuses. In all, 84 employees received an average of about
$13,000.

Sources say the freezing of bonuses actually started last year under Johnson for
both SES and non-SES managers.

As a part of the agencywide review, Tangherlini is rethinking how the organization
is structured. Therefore, until the review is completed, he said a temporary
hiring freeze is necessary.

Tangherlini said Tuesday during an event sponsored by ACT-IAC and TechAmerica in
McLean, Va., that he is considering all options in changing the way the agency is
organized, including consolidating the chief information officer's offices for
headquarters, the Public Building Service and the Federal Acquisition Service.

"The fact is we already have a common single organization that is supposed to
deliver solutions to federal agencies, the problem is that over time we have
created these redundant silos within the organization," he said. "I'm not saying
that I have figured out yet, with the team, Congress, the White House, the
industry, what that right structure is. These things are squarely on the table. We
want to talk about it. If there are rumors about consolidating these within the
organization, that means we are doing something right because are having the
dialogue."

Tangherlini said it's his job to push the agency the hardest and think bigger for
ways to deliver on its mission more effectively and efficiently.

"I'm challenging folks across the organization to find ways that we can look at
how we set ourselves up in the most efficient way possible," he said. "I'll not
put an end to the rumor, but I will not answer it definitively. I think we need to
have these conversations and they will continue throughout the summer. I've
promised the people I work for we will have some at least notional idea of where
we are going this fall."

He added he hopes that this top-to-bottom review is the first of many that GSA
continually goes through to improve on the way it meets its mission.

More GSA reform hearings on tap

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), who has probed the agency's questionable spending, called
the latest effort "only one small step to reform an agency that has spun out of
control."

"It's common sense that GSA executives responsible for blowing hundreds of
millions of the taxpayers' dollars on lavish conferences, trips to exotic
locations and poorly monitored employee gift programs should not be rewarded with
bonuses," Mica said in a statement. "The committee will conduct additional
hearings on GSA, to review the agency's measures to clean up its act and to
consider additional reforms."

Tangherlini told GSA employees of the hiring and bonus freezes early Monday
evening.

Sources say the reaction among GSA employees was minimal. One source, who
requested anonymity because they didn't receive approval to speak to the media,
said employees almost expected these actions because of the conference scandal.

And it makes sense given the budget situation that performance awards would be
severely limited and a hiring freeze would take effect. GSA already has offered two rounds of buyouts or early retirements, and a
third round is very possible.

Tangherlini said before the announcement of the hiring and award freezes that the
morale of GSA employees has taken a hit. But employees also see the aftermath of
the scandal as an opportunity to improve.

"The 500 ideas and thousands of comments I got from folks is not from a group who
is sitting and crying themselves to sleep at night. These are folks who are
engaged, who are committed, who are interested, who are motivated and frankly
excited," he said. "I think you would have to be an organization filled with
something other than humans to not go through what we went through in the last
couple of months and not feel bad about it. But I have to say I really admire the
skill and quality of the GSA employees who are saying this is a huge opportunity
for us to reprove our value, to show what we can do and to really change the way
we really do our work."